A/N: I'm finally back! I'm SO SO sorry for the long wait... School has been absolutely crazy and I haven't had any time for writing in forever! Thankfully, I managed to finish this last week, but then I forgot about it until tonight, so here you go! Sorry for any weird formatting that may be found... When I uploaded to fanfiction, it decided to get rid of any breaks and make everything into one really long paragraph...
Thanks to:
alissarhode: No problem! I know exactly how you feel! Thank you so much :D
Night-Alice: As always, thanks times a million!
ernesdo: Hooray! Thank you for your patience :) Hopes this satisfies your appetite at least temporarily
NightLover432: Please don't stake me :o Sorry for the shortness of this chapter... Figuring out where I want to take this and wanted to update rather than leaving you all hanging any longer :D Hopefully this is acceptable...
writer1098: Haha Here you go :)

Chapter 25

Mark was paralysed. Not literally. More so mentally. However, it had the same effect. It wasn't as though he physically couldn't move though. It was more like he couldn't bring himself to move. He knew he should intervene in the situation. He needed to help make things better and right. He needed to stop his sister from being such a complete idiot. He couldn't do it though. Something in the back of his head was holding him back. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring himself to do anything. It was like his subconscious mind knew that it was Mary-Lynette's fight and no matter how badly he wanted to help her, his subconscious wouldn't let him. So he watched. Watched as his sister was handed over by his father to Ash. Saw the trust in his eyes as he gave Ash a look that communicated that trust. Then he watched as his sister's fear turned into an almost maniacal certainty. But it wasn't certainty that Ash would keep her safe no matter what. It was certainty that Ash was lying and that Dahlia was the protector! He was positive that mind control was being used and he didn't like it. Mind control was a dirty trick.

Looking at his daughter, Mr. Carter felt a sickening trickle of fear start flowing through his body, He didn't know where it started, but it did. It made him sick to his stomach to see Mary-Lynette's eyes look so lifeless. So corpse-like. Like someone had drained her of everything, leaving only a hollow shell behind. It was unnerving, to say the least. Unnatural in fact. Gripping Claudine's hand, he pulled her to his side. She had been standing slightly behind Ash and Mary-Lynette, but as Ash relinquished Mary-Lynette to his mother, Mr. Carter didn't want Claudine behind the teen. He had an eerie feeling that something bad was about to happen. It was happening! His daughter looked possessed! Suddenly he remembered something Mary-Lynette had told him when they first explained about vampires. "Soulmates can kinda communicate telepathically." she had told him. He wondered if vampires in general could use telepathy. It seemed to make sense. Silently hoping that his idea would work, Mr. Carter thought very hard and hoped Ash could hear him.What are you doing? I thought you loved her! Over and over again he thought the phrase, hoping desperately that Ash was, in fact a vampire. He shocked himself at this change of heart. Only moments ago, he had torn his daughter away from this boy because he believed him to be using drugs. Now he was trying to use telepathy? What was wrong with him?

A voice entered Mr. Carter's head. It startled him as it was not his own.I do. Of course I do. Why else would I have brought you all here? She wouldn't leave without you. I had no other choice. Looking over at Ash, Mr. Carter saw a hint of a smirk on his face. It quickly disappeared in the anger though. It was clear that Ash wasn't going to stand for things much longer.Be careful! I don't want to have to live with my daughter if you get hurt! Mr. Carter thought, hoping that the blonde teenager could still hear him. He saw a flicker of a laugh twitch across his face before it became serious. After that moment, Mr. Carter was much too scared to do any more to distract Ash. If he did, he might get hurt. And if he got hurt - especially because of him - his daughter would never forgive him. Even against him as she seemed to be. Heck, she probably wouldn't forgive the world.

Come. The voice in Mary-Lynette's head was growing more pronounced. Though it had began at a near whisper, suggesting to her to do as it said. Now it was straight up demanding her to do things. The strangest thing though, was that she didn't mind. She found herself almost willingly complying to Dahlia's wishes. Mary-Lynette knew that there was some reason that she shouldn't listen to Dahlia. She seemed to recall herself being scared of her. But that was stupid. It was Ash who she should have been scared of! He had lied to her and left her for a year with barely any attempt at contacting her. He called her his soulmate. Ya right. He probably didn't even know the meaning of the word, stupid as he was. Looking over at the lying piece of scum, Mary-Lynette smiled maniacally. He looked utterly defeated. Perfect. It served him right.

Feeling a slight tug on her hand, Mary-Lynette looked over to where Dahlia stood.Come. The voice was in her head again. Louder and more irritated sounding this time. Tugging on her hand yet again, Dahlia glared at Mary-Lynette. As Dahlia's gaze raked over her body, Mary-Lynette felt a pain wherever Dahlia looked at her. It wasn't a sharp pain like being slapped, but a slowly intensifying one. It built until she felt as though she had become a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere. She was burning up. Undergoing a violent combustion reaction. She felt her legs slowly give way as the strength in them was burned into nothingness. Mary-Lynette soon was lying on the ground cringing as the pain became too much to bear. Holding her head for fear that it would explode if she let go, she tried her hardest not to scream. If she screamed, Dahlia would be even more displeased. Through all the fire erupting within her body, Mary-Lynette could still sense that Dahlia didn't want to hurt her. She hadn't listened, so this was just discipline.

Looking up at Dahlia, Mary-Lynette noticed that she was focused entirely on disciplining her. So focused, in fact, that she didn't even seem to notice the dark shadow coming up behind her, looking as though it was about to strike. Just as she was about to try and warn her, Dahlia turned around to face the shadow. Feeling the pain subside slightly, Mary-Lynette quickly crawled away to observe from a safer distance.

Watching her daughter, Claudine was frightened. Oddly enough, she wasn't frightened for herself. No. She was frightened for the brown-haired girl cowering on the ground a ways away. She had watched the girl's range of expressions go from fear to betrayal to confidence to pain in only a few short minutes. Mr. Carter had pulled her off to the side when Mary-Lynette went to stand by the dark-haired lady. Claudine could easily see why. She knew at that moment that a fight was about to break out. Exactly why, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she needed to help her daughter at whatever cost. Claudine tried to walk towards the teenager, but felt someone at her hand restraining her. Looking over to see what was keeping her from going and helping her daughter, she saw her husband. He gave her hand another tug and began walking backwards, dragging her with him. He looked scared. Almost as scared as Mary-Lynette. She had never seen her husband scared before. It made the sickening pit of fear and dread that resided in her stomach grow larger and intensify. Turning her attention towards the blonde boy standing before his mother, Claudine watched in horror as a fight began to unfold before her eyes.

A/N: So if you all are reading still (sorry...) I hope this is enough to keep you interested until mid-December (my expected update time hopefully). If I can update any sooner I will, but I make no promises...
Very very sorry and I hope you all enjoyed the chapter despite it's shortness. Hopefully the next one will be longer...
Thanks again for still reading and please review! Perhaps it shall inspire me and help me to think of what I want to write next :D
Happy Writing!